The 1972 Australian Open was a

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

tournament played on

grass court A grass court is one of the types of tennis court on which the sport of tennis, originally known as "lawn tennis", is played. Grass courts are made of grasses in different compositions depending on the tournament. While grass courts are more tra ...

s at the

Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club Kooyong Stadium, at the Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club, is an Australian tennis venue, located in the Melbourne suburb of Toorak, adjacent to the namesake suburb of Kooyong. The stadium was built in 1927, and has undergone several renovations. It ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

in Australia and was held from 26 December 1971 to 3 January 1972. It was the 60th edition of the

Australian Open The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...

and the first

Grand Slam Grand Slam or Grand slam may refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category terminology originating in contract bridge and other whist card games Athletics * Grand Slam Track, professional track and field league Auto racing * ...

of the year.

Finals

Men's singles

Ken Rosewall Kenneth Robert Rosewall (born 2 November 1934) is an Australian former World number one male tennis player rankings, world No. 1 professional tennis player. Rosewall won 147 singles titles, including 23 majors: a record 15 Major professional te ...

defeated

Malcolm Anderson Malcolm James Anderson (born 3 March 1935) is an Australian former tennis player who was active from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s. He won the singles title at the 1957 U.S. National Championships and achieved his highest amateur ranking o ...

7–6^(7–2), 6–3, 7–5 * It was Rosewall's 16th career Grand Slam title (his 8th in singles) and his 6th Australian title.

Women's singles

Virginia Wade Sarah Virginia Wade (born 10 July 1945) is a British former professional tennis player. She won three major tennis singles championships and four major doubles championships, and is the only British woman in history to have won titles at all fo ...

defeated

Evonne Goolagong Evonne Fay Goolagong Cawley (née Goolagong; born 31 July 1951) is an Australian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), and was one of the world's leadi ...

6–4, 6–4 * It was Wade's 2nd career Grand Slam title and her 1st Australian title.

Men's doubles

Owen Davidson Owen Keir Davidson (4 October 1943 – 12 May 2023) was an Australian professional tennis player of the 1960s and 1970s. Alongside Billie Jean King, Davidson won eight grand slam mixed doubles titles. In 1967 he won a calendar year slam for m ...

defeated

Ross Case Ross Case (born 1 November 1951) is an Australian former tennis player. His career-high singles ranking was world No. 14. With Geoff Masters, he won two Grand Slam doubles titles: in 1974 at the Australian Open and in 1977 at Wimbledon. He wa ...

Geoff Masters Geoff Masters (born 19 September 1950) is an Australian former tennis player. He was part of doubles winning pairs in the US Open, Australian Open & Wimbledon tournaments during the 1970s, currently Masters is a commentator for international te ...

3–6, 7–6, 6–3 * It was Davidson's 1st career Grand Slam title and his only Australian title. It was Rosewall's 17th career Grand Slam title and his 7th and last Australian title.

Women's doubles

Helen Gourlay Helen Gourlay Cawley (née Gourlay; born 23 December 1946) is a retired tennis player from Australia. Personal Helen Gourlay was born in Launceston, Tasmania, Australia. She married Richard Leon Cawley in January 1977, and married William Timot ...

Kerry Harris Kerry Harris (born 19 September 1949) is an Australian former professional tennis player, active from 1967 to 1975, who reached the semi-final of the 1972 Australian Open, and reached four Grand Slam doubles finals, of which she won one, in ...

defeated Patricia Coleman /

Karen Krantzcke Karen Krantzcke (1 February 1946 – 11 April 1977) was an Australian tennis player. She achieved a world top ten singles ranking in 1970. In her short career, she made the quarterfinals or better at each of the four Grand Slam championships i ...

6–0, 6–4 * It was Gourlay's 1st career Grand Slam title and her 1st Australian title. It was Harris' only career Grand Slam title and her only Australian title.

Mixed doubles

:''Competition not held between 1970 and 1986.''

References

External links

Australian Open official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Australian Open, 1972 1972 in Australian tennis 1971 in Australian tennis December 1971 sports events in Australia January 1972 sports events in Australia 1972,Australian Open